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Disturbed dental development of permanent teeth in children with solid tumors and lymphomas
Author(s) -
Cubukcu Cigdem Elbek,
Sevinir Betül,
Ercan İlker
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
pediatric blood and cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.116
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1545-5017
pISSN - 1545-5009
DOI - 10.1002/pbc.22902
Subject(s) - medicine , dentition , blood cancer , dentistry , radiation therapy , cancer , agenesis , chemotherapy , nuclear medicine , radiology , surgery
Background Deficient dental root development has been reported after conventional pediatric anticancer therapy but less information is available on children with solid tumors and lymphomas. Procedure We examined dental development from panoramic radiographs (PRGs) of 37 childhood cancer survivors (CCS) treated under the age of 10 years with multimodal chemotherapy (CT) and/or head and neck radiotherapy (RT). A novel defect index (DeI) was used to describe the total damage to permanent dentition. The DeI was also tested in matched controls. Results All CCS had dental disturbances including abnormal root development (86.4%), microdontia (13.5%) and tooth agenesis (16.2%). Testing the controls gave the mean DeI value 1.9 ± 2.7 (range, 0–12), while the index scores in the study group varied from 0 to 49 (mean 10.8 ± 11.2) ( P < 0.01). The statistical differences in the mean DeI values were insignificant between CT and CT and RT groups ( P > 0.05). Conclusions Children treated for solid tumors and lymphomas are at considerable risk of some disturbances in developing dental structures. RT increased the severity of disturbances induced by CT. Studies should further elucidate dose‐, age and time‐related effects of anticancer treatment on dental development. Pediatr Blood Cancer 2012; 58: 80–84. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.